ASEAN auto sales predicted to rise up to 50 percent in next 10 years

ASEAN auto sales predicted to rise up to 50 percent in next 10 years

MANILA (AFP): Auto sales in Southeast Asia are projected to
grow by 50 percent in the next 10 years as economies recover from
the 1997 financial crisis, industry experts said here Friday.

The experts from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
forum said that as vehicle sales in Europe and the United States
remained steady, the focus would be on the Southeast Asian market
as the region returned to the growth track.

"Automotive growth in markets will be greater in the ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) part of the world in the
next decade," said Ian Grigg, chairman of the second APEC
automotive dialogue meeting which ended here Friday.

"I think in the ASEAN region over a period of a decade, we
have set the annual automotive market to grow up to 50 percent.
So by the year 2010, we will see a market growth in the region of
about 50 percent," he said in a news conference.

He said the projection was based on the forecast by ASEAN,
which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The 1997 financial crisis hammered the auto market, with total
vehicle sales in the region plunging to just 500,000 units in
1998 from close to 1.5 million units in 1996.

Herman Latiff, president of the ASEAN automotive federation,
said 800,000 units were sold in 1999 as regional economies began
to recover and sales are projected to reach around one million
vehicles this year.

"If this trend will go on, maybe in three to four years we can
go back to the level of 1996," Latiff said in the news
conference.

However, this would depend on several factors such as the full
implementation of trade liberalization in the region under the
ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), he said.

Around 170 auto representatives from the Asia-Pacific region
attended the conference, which started last year as a forum to
discuss industry-related issues.

Stephen Collins, president of the automotive trade policy
council which represents the global trade and investment goals of
major US automakers, said prospects for growth in ASEAN "are much
more optimistic."

He said the integration of ASEAN's automotive market through
AFTA was "critical as the global automotive industry continues to
consolidate."

He noted the recent dramatic mergers in the auto industry
which saw General Motors Corp. take a substantial stake in
Italy's Fiat and Ford Motor Co. tendering an offer for BMW's Land
Rover and DaimlerChrysler AG buying into Japan's Mitsubishi
Motors Corp.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia,
Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.